Power Plays Chapter 55

Thousands awoke in the early hours of the morning to the cries of owls who were ready to deliver a special issue of the Daily Prophet. Half a dozen other individuals had thrown their names forward as a candidate to become the next Minister for Magic, and the Daily Prophet was keen to report on each and every one of them.

But it was Amelia Bones who received the most commentary.

Announcing her candidacy at Minister Shacklebolt’s speech had drawn a fair amount of ire her way from many traditionalists who saw her act as being disrespectful, but that didn’t matter much when she was primarily appealing towards common citizens, not pure-bloods from ancient and noble houses. It was the muggleborn, the half-bloods, and those pure-bloods who’d suffered from the Death Eaters that she hoped would provide the bulk of her votes.

Harry frowned as he flipped through the paper, seeing four distinct opinion pieces on Amelia, each arguing for or against her candidacy. Even he struggled to generate this much press organically. Was she working with someone within the Daily Prophet to maximise her profile?

Regardless, it wasn’t going to do her any good. Harry was making it his mission to see Daphne elected, and if he had to play politics through the media, then so be it. He’d done it before.

The clacking sound of heels upon the floor signalled Daphne’s arrival to the kitchen. Her golden robes looked gorgeous on her, and their fun yesterday certainly seemed to have put her in a much better mood.

“Morning,” Harry smiled at her.

Daphne came around and planted a quick kiss on his lips before sitting down next to him. “Is the media circus already up and running?”

“You know it is,” Harry replied. “Elphias Doge is running, but you know how controversial he is given the chaos in the Wizengamot. Tiberius Ogden is trying to salvage his reputation as Kingsley’s Senior Undersecretary. He seems to truly believe that he has a shot of winning.”

Daphne snorted loudly and picked up a slice of buttered toast from the table in front of her. She never ate much the morning before a big event.

“Someone named Charles Barnsley is running,” Harry frowned. “Never heard of him.”

“Me neither,” Daphne said with a slight shake of her head.

“Then there’s Hamish MacFarlan, a former professional Quidditch player and previous head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.”

“He’s been out of politics too long to make a splash,” Daphne said. “He’ll drop out once the first polls come in and show his dismal support.”

“And finally we have Percy Weasley,” Harry said as his eyebrows shot up. He knew that Percy had ambition, but he’d seemed quite pleased with his role as the Head of the Department of Magical Transportation. What had made him change his mind?

“He could be a bit of a problem,” Daphne hummed in thought. “Anyone who fought in the Battle of Hogwarts is bound to get some popular support thrown their way.”

“I’ll try and ask Arthur and Molly about him, but I still think Amelia is your only real threat,” Harry said.

“Is there nothing about Rhys Orpington in there?” Daphne asked curiously. “I’d have thought that he’d be one of the very first to announce his candidacy.”

“Not a word,” Harry shook his head.

Daphne was right though. It was highly unusual that Rhys hadn’t tried to make everything about him again. He was never one to play coy and linger now that he was the de facto ruler of the traditionalist faction of the Wizengamot.

More and more, this election cycle was appearing uncomfortably odd. His time away in France had removed him from the daily goings on in the political landscape of Britain. He felt like he was missing information whenever he tried to understand everything that was going on around him.

“None of his cronies have made any moves; he might be getting ready to make a flashy announcement himself,” Daphne suggested after a few moments of thought. “We have a Wizengamot session today, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he announces that he’s running then.”

“He would have all of his supporters around him, and plenty of press to take his photo,” Harry mused. “I don’t like it though. There’s no way that he’d make things this simple. He needs a platform to run on that’d endear the public towards him.”

As ever, Daphne was quick to catch onto his line of thinking. “Do you think he might put forward a surprise piece of legislation? Something to win the public’s favour before he announces that he’s running.”

“He has to do something notable,” Harry replied. “His boisterous remarks have hit the front page of the Daily Prophet enough times that most everyone in Britain has to know who he is. He has to know that he’s a divisive figure because of how much he rabble rouses and clings to traditional pure-blood ideology. There’s no way that he’d manage to win an election against you or even Amelia for that matter without doing something big to prove that he’s capable of leading a unified Britain.”

Daphne accepted the mug of coffee that appeared before her courtesy of Hobsy and slowly stirred in a teaspoon of sugar. “We have to assume the worst then. He has a plan in place.”

“Can you figure out what it is that he’s planning?” Harry questioned her.

Backroom politics between Wizengamot members were just as important as what actually happened during their official sessions. Even the lower-level staff assigned to each member engaged in careful diplomatic manoeuvres and espionage.

“I can’t myself, but some of my allies can,” Daphne replied. “Raphael Avery still has connections with the Orpington family and several of the traditional pure-blood families that support Rhys. I’ll ask him to see what he can dig up. Maybe Morwen Tremblay can find something too.”

“They’ll have to move quickly,” Harry pointed out.

“I know how to handle this, Harry,” Daphne retorted without any bite. “But we need to figure out how you’re going to handle things going forward.”

Harry cocked his head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re supporting my campaign, then you’ll be going directly against your boss, Amelia,” Daphne explained. “We already know that she and Proudfoot are still suspicious over how you handled Dawlish. They’ll double down even more to find any evidence they can use against you.”

“There isn’t any evidence to find,” Harry said. He’d made sure to do his absolute best to cover his tracks.

“No?” Daphne raised an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t Tonks tell you that Amelia had a photograph that showed her making Dawlish fall at that ceremony commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts?”

“You know that Tonks wouldn’t sell me out,” Harry argued back. “And even if Amelia uses that photo to go after her instead, Tonks can easily argue back that Amelia held onto that photo for so long for leverage or blackmail or anything else that’ll convince the Wizengamot that Amelia is just as wrong as her, if not more so. It’s not like Tonks did anything that bad. Most people would be willing to believe it to be a stupid prank or something like that.”

“What about the fact that Proudfoot doesn’t buy your story that Dawlish was accidentally leaking information to the Death Eaters?” Daphne continued.

“There aren’t any Death Eaters left to corroborate his claims,” Harry replied.

“What about Dawlish himself?” Daphne exclaimed, trying to get Harry to see the seriousness of her points. “He’ll be locked in Azkaban for who knows how many more years, but that doesn’t mean that Proudfoot or Amelia couldn’t go in and question him directly. And if they discover that he’s been affected by a Memory Charm…”

“Those become harder and harder to detect with each passing month,” Harry said. “It’s been on him long enough now that it would take a very powerful Legilimens to even notice it, let alone remove it without damaging Dawlish’s original memories. I understand what you’re trying to say here, but you need to trust me that Dawlish won’t be a problem. And if he is…”

“You’ll kill him?” Daphne finished for him, staring him down with those critical eyes of hers that he was so rarely on the receiving end of.

“No, I…” Harry hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“Dawlish was a horrible Head Auror and a terrible person, and I know that he indirectly contributed to Susan’s death, but he’s not deserving of being murdered,” Daphne told him gently.

“I know,” Harry sighed in frustration. Sometimes, it was hard to keep his mind in check. He was so used to fighting against Death Eaters that killing his enemies was usually the first thought that came to him. But for all of Dawlish’s horrific faults, Harry knew that he shouldn’t kill a man who was already suffering in Azkaban.

“I just want you to see all of the possibilities about what could happen to us in this election,” Daphne said, reaching out across the table to take his hand into hers. “I think that you’ve acted admirably to make Britain a better place, but you had to skirt the law to do that sometimes. Some people won’t see your actions as being justified, and we need to make sure that we are prepared to deal with anything that comes out.”

“I will be,” Harry assured her. “I’ll speak to Tonks and Gabrielle at the office. Both of them will help me prepare for what’s to come.”

“Or you’ll just spend all day shagging them,” Daphne snorted in amusement.

“We can multitask,” Harry said with a teasing smile.

Daphne glanced over at the grandfather clock. “I need to get going. I’ve got to get in contact with Raphael and Morwen before the Wizengamot session today.”

“And I should get into the office and get ready for the day,” Harry agreed.

Hobsy appeared then and eagerly cleared away their dirty dishes. She wished them well as they set off for the floo.

The Ministry Atrium was abuzz with chatter upon their arrival, just as Harry had expected. Everyone had an opinion on who should be the next Minister for Magic and who else might throw their hats into the ring. Quite a few people shot Harry curious or knowing looks, assuming that he was preparing himself to make a run for the position. He hoped that when he disabused them of that notion that they’d willingly accept Daphne as a substitute for their support.

When they got to the lifts, Harry gave Daphne a quick kiss before they were forced to separate.

The Auror Department was quiet when he arrived. It was rare for anything of note to be going on this early in the morning. A few of his Senior Aurors nodded to him in acknowledgement as he passed them by on the way to his office.

As he opened the door into it, Harry paused mid stride. Something instinctively felt off to him. It was something palpable in the air. Something… magical. A quick Revealing Charm offered him no information.

“Cathy?” Harry called out to one of the secretaries that sat nearby.

An older redheaded woman poked her head up from her desk. “Yes?” Cathy replied.

“Could you bring me the ward stone for my office please?” He asked, doing his best to hide any concern from his tone. “You can take my key.”

Cathy seemed confused by his request but got up to follow it anyways. All ward stones were kept in a locked room within the department. They kept up a number of privacy and security wards that ensured that the department could operate smoothly. Importantly, they also noted anyone who entered or exited an area.

When Cathy returned with his key and the ward stone, Harry still had yet to step foot within his office.

“Here you are, sir,” she said as she handed them over.

“Thank you,” Harry murmured in reply, his wand already drawn. He cast a Diagnostic Charm on it and watched as a long scroll of parchment was conjured before him. A slow trickle of ink began to stretch across the parchment and formed into words.

Harry’s eyes scanned the document until he found the section he was looking for. The last person to enter the office was… himself. He’d gone in five minutes before he left the office for the night. Everything looked correct.

The security section of the wards showed no changes either. There was nothing there that indicated that any type of change had occurred, nor were there any unusual entries or issues with the wards shown. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

But his senses hadn’t been wrong.

Frowning to himself, Harry closed the door to his office and slowly made his way back to the ward stone room to return it. The second he stepped into the room, he was met with the familiar sensation of electricity in the air—the exact sensation he felt whenever he encountered powerful magic.

It was a sense that powerful witches and wizards had, at least according to what Dumbledore had told him. The old man had been able to do it too. Harry had long been able to feel the moment he stepped through a magical ward, but his sensitivity towards magical artefacts had only started to truly grow in recent years. It was one of the things that had made him so successful in hunting down the dark artefacts kept by pure-blood families in their manors.

He sealed the ward stone away and returned back to his office. Closing his eyes, he focused on the world around him as he opened up the door again.

Again, he felt something in there.

This time though, Harry stepped inside. When nothing happened, he took another step. And then another. And another.

By the time he reached his desk, he had yet to sense anything change about the magic he was sensing. It remained perfectly inert. No, inert wasn’t the right word. It was cloaked somehow. The magical energy it was giving off was being suppressed.

Most people wouldn’t have been able to sense a magical artefact at all unless it was touching their skin. Those powerful enough to sense one beyond that likely wouldn’t have been able to detect this one in his office.

Someone planted something in here, and they didn’t want Harry to notice it.

Harry sat down at his desk and began taking out his normal stationary as he prepared to deal with the documents that would be brought into him momentarily. As he did so, he kept trying to hone in on whatever was in his office.

It took nearly a minute before he was able to identify it coming from somewhere behind his right shoulder.

Just then, there was a knock on his office door.

“Come in,” Harry called out as he shifted in his seat to draw his wand underneath his desk.

Cathy came in with a bundle of parchment floating behind her. “Here’s your letters and reports that came in overnight, sir.”

“Thank you, Cathy,” Harry smiled.

As normal, Cathy directed them down onto his desk, and that was when Harry silently cast a variant upon the Revealing Charm. It was a spell that affected his own eyesight and pierced through most invisibility spells. It was something similar to what Moody had put onto his magical eye.

The moment that Cathy left, Harry stood up from behind his desk and scanned the room. He spotted a pair of Omnioculars stuck in the upper-right corner of his office by the ceiling. The device was pointed directly down at him.

So, someone was spying on him. They could record things from the Omnioculars and then come back at a later date to collect the footage. That was far better than his fear that someone had planted something that could harm him in his office.

Acting as casually as he could, Harry walked over to the bookshelf along the wall and pulled out a thick book on wizarding laws, something that he frequently referred to when examining his Aurors’ reports. He sat it down on his desk and got to work with his normal activities, leaving the Omnioculars perfectly in place.

Someone had gone to quite a bit of trouble to get those stashed up there, and they’d covered their tracks brilliantly. There weren’t many people who could do that. Amelia and Proudfoot were the first ones who came to his mind. As the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia could’ve easily tricked the ward stone briefly to allow her or Proudfoot safe passage into his office to plant this. But he didn’t want to get locked into that line of thinking quite yet. There were many others who could’ve done this as well.

Harry wasn’t going to remove the Omnioculars, he decided. He’d need to be careful, certainly, but he could keep up appearances for now. He’d have to warn Tonks and Gabrielle to not do anything compromising within his office, but that’d be a simple-enough message to deliver elsewhere.

For now, he just needed to wait. Someone was bound to show up and retrieve the Omnioculars, and Harry was going to catch them in the act.

And then he could find out exactly why they were spying on him.